We found a large lump on Merlin, my older cat, on Friday and took him in to the vet on Saturday. He has a lump about the size of a golf ball attached to the inside of his last two ribs that is growing into his abdomen. He's 16, so we're just going to monitor him and keep him comfortable. He's not in pain now, but as soon as he shows any discomfort (which is inevitable, since it's pushing on stuff) we'll do what we need to do.

He's had a rough year, but once we got the thyroid stuff under control things evened out pretty well. It's only in the last week or so that he's been off his food again and we're back to "convincing" him to eat. He's currently only eating warmed albacore tuna with catnip on top. But if he'll eat it, then that's what he gets. He's even refusing the nasty cheap food that used to tempt him... not that that's the worst thing in the world, but I'll feed him whatever he wants if it will just get him to eat...

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Thanks everyone, if anyone has any ideas on getting him to eat, please let me know.

He's on appetite stimulants, but will only drink. I've been finding him the most disgusting, cheap, smelly food I can find and we mix it with hot water to make "gravy" and he'll drink the liquid but won't touch the solid part of the food. For a couple days, albacore tuna with catnip sprinkled on it was working. And FreshPet salmon soft food was good for a few mouthfuls. However, he stands on the crate and yells for food, and purrs when I put it down... he just won't actually eat it. He definitely pays much more attention to "fishy" food than anything else.

The tumor has grown noticeably since last Friday. When we found it, it was two "upward bumps" between the last two ribs, now it has covered the ribs completely and you can't feel where they are at all. I can imagine that it's moving his insides around which is impacting the eating as well.

He's back to using the litter box, which is a good thing - last week he peed all over the house on anything he wanted to. The couch, the dog bed, my silk heels, the clean laundry, the dog blankets, the dirty laundry, the bagpipes...

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

He ate some albacore today. He refuses any "regular" tuna now. We tried mackerel last night, he drank the juice, but didn't eat the fish. A few people suggested that he may be hungry, but also nauseous, so tomorrow I'm going to get some anti-nausea meds and prednisone for him. As long as he is comfortable and eating and still beating up the dogs we'll do whatever we need to do to keep him going.

The other night he hunted my sock, I found it on Ruby's chair in the morning. So I know he had a good night.

As soon as I find my blender jar, I'm going to try liquifying some tuna.

All of his food gets mixed with hot water, he likes it warm, and since he's currently eating very very little but drinking a lot I figure that making as much "gravy" as possible is a plus.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I once pet sat for a cat in kidney failure and her owner instructed me to try feeding the "good for her" food, but bottom line to give the cat anything she would eat. One day she decided my chicken mcnuggets from McDonald's were pretty tasty. I'm sure there is very little, if any, nutritive value in them, but at least it was something.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through this, Michelle. Sending you good thoughts.